Grimshaw-Gudewicz Reading Room and Archives

Resources (3)

• J. & W. R. Wing & Company Records (1833-1918)

  8 linear feet. Records in this collection focus on the whaling-related activities of J. & W. R. Wing & Company from 1853-1918. Dominating these materials are various types of ship's papers, including agent and owner accounts of expenses and profits resulting from whaling voyages; crew papers, such as slops and outfitting charges, discharge records, crew lists, and receipts indicating payments received at the conclusion of voyages; bills of exchange and lading; returns and gauges on whale oil and bone; and bills and receipts relating to outfitting and ship repair costs and to sales of catches. These records, which concern voyages of twenty-three different vessels, also encompass letters and telegrams from shipmasters; consulate and custom house papers; notices and receipts for marine insurance; legal documents concerning Alabama Claims for the Brunswick (Ship); and correspondence, statements, awards, and similar materials relating to the 1893 seizure of the Cape Horn Pigeon (Bark) by Russian officials while cruising near the Bering Sea on charges of violating fishing laws. Finding aid available: https://www.whalingmuseum.org/explore/library/finding-aids/mss35

• Ship's Papers (1771-1927)

  12 linear feet. This collection contains account books and other financial records, customs, and conular documents, business correspondence, insurance policies, bills of sale, sail plans, and similar records relating to whalers, merchant and cargo ships, and other types of vessels that were in service between 1771-1927. TA portion of records in this collection principally concern voyages of merchant ships which sailed from American ports between 1771-1895. Many of these vessels were engaged in the coastwise trade between New England, New York City, and states to the south, particularly Virginia. Other records reflect voyages from Boston, New Bedford, New York City, Newport, San Francisco, and elswhere to ports in the West Indies, South America, Europe, and Asia, especially those in Brazil, England, Sweeden, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, and Russia. These documents consist of customs records such as crew lists, manifests, certificates of ownership and registry, clearance papers, and permits to discharge cargo; bills of sale, insurance policies, and charter-parties; bills of exchange and lading; protests and financial accounts relating to damage to or the loss of cargoes and vessels; sail plans; and bills and receipts. Finding aid available: https://www.whalingmuseum.org/explore/library/finding-aids/mss79

• Taber Family Papers (1712-1901)

  10 inches. Papers of Bartholomew Taber (1717-1813), Dartmouth town clerk and surveyor with interests in shipping and the mercantile trade, including correspondence, town clerk's records (ca. 1744-1751), surveyor's records, estate papers for relative William Peckham, deeds and other legal papers, and ships' papers; papers of his brother, John (1726-1761), captain of the sloop Neptune, including materials (1760-1761) relating to his capture and imprisonment in 1760-1761 by a French privateer off Martinique during the French and Indian War; and papers of Bartholomew's son, John Taber (1773-1847), town assessor and surveyor of Fairhaven, including public records and information concerning taxation and road repair. Also contains papers of Bartholomew's grandson, George Hathaway Taber (1808-1901), ship captain and town official in Fairhaven including correspondence relating to local history and Russian fur trade in Sitka, Alaska, in 1869; and papers of other family members (local officials, justices of the peace, and weavers and merchants involved in the clothing trade, of Dartmouth, Rochester, and Bristol County, Mass.). Other persons represented include George Kelley (1847-1868), Sarah Russell (Taber) (1806-1905), and Sarah Taber (b. 1839) Huttleston; Bartholomew (1779-1860), Edward (b. 1754), George Hathaway, Jr. (1859-1940), Jabez (1774-1870), Jacob (1683-1773), and Tucker (1717-1749) Taber; and Furman Reade Whitwell (1793-1861). Finding aid available: https://www.whalingmuseum.org/explore/library/finding-aids/mss36